About us
Issues discussed
Since its establishment, the Committee has discussed a broad range of vaccine safety issues either causing, or with a potential to cause, public concern. These include a number of general issues relevant to all vaccines such as the safety of adjuvants as well as a number of vaccine-specific issues that pertain both to long-standing vaccines as well as to new vaccines or vaccines still under development. Examples of such vaccine-specific issues include the following:
- hepatitis B vaccine and multiple sclerosis;
- hepatitis B vaccine and leukaemia;
- measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism;
- intranasal influenza vaccination and risk of Bell's palsy; and
- the safety of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines.
The Committee deals with any vaccine- or immunization-related safety issue that is decided upon by the WHO Secretariat in conjunction with the Chair of the Committee, in consultation with the members of the Committee, that meets one or more of the following criteria:
- the safety concern is referred to WHO by any government, national health authority, or drug regulatory authority for review, explanation, clarification or adjudication, and is judged to be of special importance and/or complexity;
- the issue is identified by the Committee, as a result of publication or of any direct notification to the Committee including by members of the Committee themselves, as having public health implications and/or the potential to affect adversely any national or international immunization programmes, or otherwise to affect control of communicable diseases.
The Committee reviews both unpublished and published material before reaching conclusions on specific issues. The critical review by the many experts of the committee with a broad range of expertise of material not yet published constitutes a substantial peer review process that far exceeds that of the formal peer review process implemented by journals. Review of unpublished material ensures that all available material is considered when making final recommendations. This prevents delays in using new scientific evidence and avoids the problem that some important findings might otherwise never be considered for lack of publication, despite their scientific merit.
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Conclusions of the Committee
Published in the WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record
Next meetings
The next meetings of the Committee will be held on:
- 07-08 December 2011
- 06-07 June 2012
- 05-06 December 2012
- 12-13 June 2013
- 04-05 December 2013
Review of web site material
The GACVS web site is maintained by the WHO Secretariat. Only material reviewed and discussed by the Committee is posted on the web site. Material is prepared by technical focal points at WHO and reviewed by a subcommittee of GACVS members, including the Chair, prior to posting. The majority of new and revised pages are posted in English in the weeks subsequent to meetings (twice a year), although additional material may be added between meetings as necessary.
Funding
The work of the Committee is funded from multiple sources including WHO regular budget, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the GAVI Alliance and its Vaccine Initiatives. No funding is received from commercial organizations. Further information on the funding of WHO's activities can be found in the Organization's Programme Budget 2008-2009.